by Page Morgan
I didn’t want Tobin to leave Rooks Hollow. I didn’t want him to leave me.
20
Tobin
I helped Ever sweep the glass shards in the kitchen, rearrange the tables and chairs, and board up the broken window before I headed off into the forest. The solitude of the trees, of nature, was more appealing than the swarm of bodies that would soon be filling Volk’s. No one would be in the forest hunting today. Five of Rooks Hollow’s own had been slain. In a village this size, five dead would probably be considered a massacre. There would be drinking and memorializing, and possibly even discussions of vengeance and a visit to Pendrak to plead with Emperor Lucian.
My own vengeance had all but disappeared that morning. What had been going through my head? Frederic had been right there, right at my fingertips. Or had he been, guarded as he was in a carriage by warriors who all knew my face. Had I not gone with Ever to the loft to hide her, how could I have reached him?
Ever. She was a distraction, and the worst kind. I hadn’t even thought of Frederic that morning after the first shouts of alarm. I’d opened Ever’s bedroom door, seen the empty bed, and all I’d wanted was to find her. Not to find out if Frederic was indeed attacking. Not to find a place where I could remain unseen and perhaps grasp an opening, an opportunity. I’d thought about Ever first.
I set my bow against a boulder alongside the rushing river. The villagers called it the Melinka. It was running high, the banking almost nonexistent. Ever had pulled me from it, saving me from drowning. For the first time in hours, in the peace of the forest, I thought of how she’d conjured her father’s bleeding image on the mirror’s surface. She’d never explained how she’d come to be in the forest the day I’d gone into the river. She certainly hadn’t been hunting. It made me wonder… Had she somehow been able to see me as well?
I slid onto the slope of the boulder and wrapped my arms around my knees. Clasping my hands together, I tried to think of how she would have even known I existed. She needed to command the mirror specifically. Why would she have asked to see me?
A trout flipped out of the rushing river and then dove back in. I had snares to check on, and the morning before, I’d spied a hole at the base of a hemlock, likely the entrance to a fox or rabbit den. I rubbed my right arm. The stitches Ever had sewn with the black floss thread were starting to be unnecessary. The skin was mending itself now, and there was no trace of corruption. I was healed.
It was time to move on.
I shrugged off my coat and unbuttoned my shirt, laying them both on the rock beside me. I pulled the blade from my boot and brought the stitched wound into view across my chest. Rooks Hollow wasn’t my home. It was just a resting spot. Before, Frederic had been behind me. Somewhere. A mystery. Now, I knew exactly where he was. I would follow him. I would have the advantage of pursuit.
The point of the polished silver blade slipped beneath the top stitch, pressing into the still-tender seam of my wound. I cut it free. A rustle of the forest’s undergrowth stilled my blade as it slipped beneath the next tight stitch. Slowly, I lifted my eyes.
Bram stood on the opposite banking of the river, his stare hitched on the mark of Morvansk I was so stupidly displaying. What had become of me? I should have heard the oaf’s approach a full minute ago.
I popped the stitch and brought the blade down to rest against my shin.
“Those big feet of yours surprise me,” I said. “I didn’t hear you coming.”
Bram looked again at the M on my shoulder. “That’s obvious.”
I watched him from my perch on the boulder. His resentment bubbled hot in his eyes. Bram wasn’t a bad looking fellow. I could even see why girls might think he was handsome. The idea that Ever might be one of those girls crossed my mind. I tightened the grip on the bone handle of my blade.
“You’re a spy for Morvansk,” Bram said, as if he’d like nothing more than to fling himself across the raging Melinka and tear my throat out.
“Not a spy. An enemy,” I replied. Bram bared his teeth in a scowl.
“And I’m to believe that? Days after you show up in Rooks Hollow, warriors from Morvansk attack. It’s just a damn coincidence?”
I tapped the blade against my leg, uncertain of Bram. I’d seen him prepared to harm Ever, to force a confession from her. I’d also seen him cover for her, to try and protect her secret. He was unpredictable, and that made him dangerous.
I got to my feet and stood on the boulder. “The attack on Rooks Hollow has been planned for months. My presence here had nothing to do with it.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. I did have something to do with it. But Rooks Hollow would have fallen under siege with or without my being here. Frederic had other assassins, after all.
“Your arm,” Bram said as I jumped from the boulder and landed on the mossy ground. “What happened to it?”
I grabbed my shirt and pulled my arms through. “Are we swapping scar stories now? Maybe next we can go fishing together and see who hooks the fattest trout.”
I buttoned up, thinking fast. Bram knew I was a marked Mor, a member of Frederic’s court. As soon as he spread the word, I’d be finished. The vengeance the wronged people of Rooks Hollow were seeking right then would be directed toward me—unless I could manipulate Bram into keeping quiet. It was the only way to buy myself a little more time.
I hooked the last button. “If you must know, there was an incident. With a hound.”
Sparks of understanding flickered across Bram’s face. I played the rest of my hand, shoving aside any remorse I felt.
“If it hadn’t been for Ever, I would have either bled to death or drowned, right here in the Melinka.”
Bram’s shock cooled over. “She rescued you?”
I patted my shoulder. “She has a light hand, too. I didn’t even feel the thread or needle.”
Hard fury contorted Bram’s face. He stared at the river while going back in his mind to the time of the hound incident, then of my arrival at Volk’s. His expression was one of stone when he looked up from the river. He knew Ever had hidden me away. That she’d lied to her village about more than just her true identity. She’d betrayed them by harboring a marked Morvansk man. My conscience started to seep through. I’d put Ever in danger by telling Bram the truth, but I also hoped his obsession with her might play in her favor. And mine.
“Why would she do this for you?” His voice was breathy and low. Restrained.
“I don’t know.” There was no need for me to lie to him about that. I still had no idea why she’d gone to the trouble.
She hadn’t known me. She had no ties to me, no responsibility to see to my safety. I wasn’t oblivious to the spark between us. The way my blood surged whenever I was near her. The flush of her skin the time I’d taken her cheek into my hand had made me want to do it again. And when we’d been pressed against each other in the hayloft…I would have kept kissing her if she hadn’t shoved me away. But before all that, she hadn’t known me.
“When are you leaving Rooks Hollow?” Bram asked, his voice curling up into a higher pitch. I studied him and the sound of his question.
He could have been asking because he was willing to let my identity slide, in favor of protecting Ever’s involvement. Or he could have been asking because he wanted to know just how much time he had to round up a mob before I fled. He twitched his jaw from side to side, waiting.
“Tomorrow,” I answered. I pictured Ever’s face, and tomorrow seemed too soon. At the same time, it wasn’t soon enough.
Bram nodded once. He grasped the wide strap of a heavy leather bag cutting across his broad chest, and gave it a tug. “By the way, I’ve emptied your snares.”
He then turned his back to me and reentered the veil of woods as silently as he’d emerged.
The taps were busy when I returned to Volk’s a few hours later. I’d managed to bag a wild turkey to make up for the snared rabbits Bram stole. The pleased rise of Ben’s eyebrows when he saw the fat bird was enough to r
eassure me no one yet knew of my marked shoulder.
I came up behind the bar and stood next to Ever. “We need to talk.”
“Can it wait?” she replied with her boy voice on. She served an amber ale to someone in a battered tin cup. The patrons must have heard the glassware at Volk’s had been destroyed and brought their own.
If I tried to pull Ever aside, Ben would see and interrupt. He’d want to know what was being said. So I stayed behind the bar, serving drinks, bowls of vegetable stew, and rock-hard biscuits. Ben was quick to tell me I wouldn’t be seeing any storgs for my help, but I didn’t mind. It kept my hands and mind at work so when I checked the clock it felt like minutes had passed, instead of hours.
Before long, the patrons were gone, and Ben was shuffling between Ever and me as we all tidied up in silence. His cold glances told me that he was still suspicious about how I knew Ever was a girl. And yet, I also sensed he had lost an ounce of his rigidity. Perhaps because I’d volunteered to hide her in the loft.
Ever and I exchanged brief looks, each of us clearly anticipating the moment Ben turned in for the night. Each time our eyes met, I was instantly back in the loft that early morning, remembering the feel of her body beneath mine.
At long last, Ben folded the towel he’d been wiping out pots with and set it on the kitchen table. He stood still, one of his hands grasping the back of his shaggy curls while the other was deep inside his trouser pocket. Ever stilled the knife she was mincing leftover biscuits with, to feed to the hens.
“Father?”
“Remember what I told you, Ever. About the place he’ll never be able to find you.”
The knife clattered to the countertop. “Father, I refused then and I still—”
“You’ll do it!” His sudden fury startled me, but almost instantly, Ben’s whole body seemed to sag. “You’ll do it.”
He slugged out of the kitchen. Ever bowed her head over the mess of biscuit crumbs, her knife slicing with wrath. I walked up behind her.
“What was that about? Where is it he wants you to go?”
She shook her head, giving a slight chuckle. “Oh, nowhere too exciting. Just into the Silent Ranges and off the edge of the world.”
The Silent Ranges? He’d have to be mad to want Ever to run there for sanctuary. Frederic and his warriors might never follow her, but the ranges were a void. I’d heard stories of explorers who’d crossed over them and never returned. And never, not once, had any people, or animals, come down out of the ranges, into our empires. Not even a squirrel or vole. At least, that’s what I’d always heard. The Silent Ranges were a last resort, a desperate move. And there was no reason to consider it.
“Frederic is going to be dead soon.” I reached around her shoulder to slide the knife out of her clenched grip. “And your father will be stuck with you permanently.”
Ever managed a laugh at my poor attempt to lighten the mood. She sobered quickly. With her back still to me, she added, “And you have to leave Rooks Hollow.”
I studied the small, checked pattern of her cap, just beneath my nose.
“Yes,” I answered. “And I apologize in advance, but you might have a problem with Bram.”
Ever’s laugh was louder this time. “You think?” She turned to face me. There were tears in her eyes. I didn’t know if they were because of Ben’s outburst, my leaving, or Bram.
“We had a run-in this morning, in the forest.”
She frowned. “That must be the reason he’s gone off.” Ever tried to walk around me toward the stove, but I held out my arm.
“Gone off where?”
Ever warily eyed my outstretched arm. “His father said Bram took the horse late this morning and rode away.” The blood slowed in my veins. My focus sharpened.
“He’s been gone all day.” Ever’s weary grin reappeared. “You must have really made him angry.”
“He saw my mark.”
Her face paled. “What? How?”
I kicked out a chair at the table and sat, threading my fingers together, mind racing. Where had Bram gone? He might have just needed time alone to think things through, as I’d needed today in the woods.
“What exactly happened between you two?” Ever asked. I had to tell her, though I didn’t want to.
“I told him about you.” Ever’s eyes widened ferociously, likely thinking I’d told Bram about her magic with the mirror. “Not about that. About the hound, and how you rescued me. How you hid me.”
The shock and fury subsided, but not by much. “Why would you do that? My father and I will be run out of town if anyone finds out!”
“I know, and I’m sorry, but—” Her open hand flew so fast toward me I was only able to intercept it after she’d grazed my cheek. I stood up and held her wriggling wrist down as her other hand came sailing from the other direction. I grabbed that one faster.
“Ever, stop. I made a mistake.” She thrashed for freedom, and I let her have it. “I gambled that if Bram knew you were involved he wouldn’t say anything to anyone.”
Ever swiped off her cap and tossed it onto the table. “Why would he do that?”
Did she really not know?
“Because he’s in love with you.” She faltered near the back door, propped open to the black night. “And if I loved a girl, I’d do whatever it took to keep her out of trouble.”
Ever turned to me. I instantly wished I hadn’t brought myself into it.
“But Bram doesn’t love me,” she whispered. “He only thinks he does. He thinks he has a right to me because he’s figured out what I am.”
There was nothing false in that statement. And right then I knew where Bram had gone.
“How far away is Havenfeld?” I asked. It was the next town along the border road, the one Frederic and his warriors had set out for that morning.
“About a three-hour ride,” Ever answered. She peered sideways at me. “Why?”
I didn’t waste any time. I grabbed my leather hunting bag from the peg on the wall and began to fill it: bread, cheese, apples, a few handfuls of walnuts.
“What are you doing, Tobin?” She watched me toss in a few potatoes. “Are you going to Havenfeld for Frederic? Right now?”
“No. It’s where Bram went.” I added a netted slab of cured pork and latched the satchel. “He’s going to tell Frederic I’m here, in Rooks Hollow.”
Ever was on my heels as I took my water skin and filled it in the barrel just outside the back door.
“Why would Bram do something so stupid?”
Because Bram knew I was an enemy of Morvansk. Because he hated that Ever had protected me; that she’d confided in me and not him. But I wasn’t able to explain this before I saw flickering lanterns in the distance.
“Is that the border road?” I nodded toward the distant trees, where light rippled in and out of sight.
Ever’s strangled gasp was enough of an answer.
“Get your cap,” I ordered. Ever tripped over the threshold going back inside, but returned with her cap firmly in place.
“If Frederic storms into Volk’s looking for you, I don’t think this cap is going to be enough to disguise me.”
I heard the fear hiding inside her sarcasm. Even though it was the opposite of what my brain was urging me to do, which was to duck into the cover of night and meet Frederic along the border road somehow, I took Ever’s hand into mine.
“I know,” I said. “That’s why you’re coming with me.”
21
Ever
Tobin dragged me across the night-damp meadow and into the barn before my lungs could handle a full protest.
“But I can’t! My father, Tobin—I can’t leave him.”
The barn was dark, and the hens were oddly subdued.
“If you stay, Frederic will find you.”
Panic squeezed my chest, and I couldn’t move, let alone speak. Tobin, however, moved with graceful calm as he grabbed a woven burlap bag and two of Hilda’s saddle blankets. Tobin stuffed the blankets in
side the bag and cinched the top.
I thought of the warrior named Karev, the scent of blood on the arrowhead when he’d thrust it at my throat. I couldn’t leave. How would I know if my father was safe? How would I know if he was hurt, or if he needed me?
I raced to the loft ladder.
“Ever, stop. Where are you going?” Tobin called.
The mirror. A mirror. It was all I needed to tell me what was happening to my father.
In the loft, I took up the pitchfork and swiveled it around so that the handle was a club. My chest ached, knowing what I had to do, and I suddenly wished I’d kept Trina’s small compact, even if it had made me feel sick. Tobin came up the ladder behind me.
“We don’t have time. We have to go. Now.”
I closed my eyes and swung the handle of the pitchfork, fast and hard. The glass fractured out from the blow point, and shards showered the floor. I tossed the pitchfork aside and fought the urge to shrink away from the broken glass. I didn’t understand it, this fear. It ran so deep and painful and real that I couldn’t even reach for a shard of mirror like I’d planned.
“Ever? What’s wrong? Just grab a piece and let’s go.”
I heard a scream somewhere up the main road. My hand trembled as I bent down, my eyes locking on a triangular shard roughly the size of my hand. It would be enough, if only I could convince my mutinous body to grasp the thing already.
Tobin swept in next to me, picked up the shard, and put it in with the hunting bag filled with food.
“Now!” he growled, and pulled me to my feet. The weak, quivery feeling of my muscles set in as we descended the loft ladder and raced out of the barn, without Hilda. She would have taken us away faster, but would have also left a trail.
